In late June, the U.S., Canada, Australia, Japan, and the 43 member nations of the Council of Europe approved the 27th and final draft of a treaty they believe will make the online world a safer place. But many organizations aren't so sure.

The main purpose of the 113-page International Cybercrime Treaty, the first international agreement on Internet-related criminal offenses, is to provide comprehensive global laws governing Internet use. The treaty covers a range of crimes, including hacking, virus writing, and online copyright infringement. The call for worldwide law enforcement will allow cybercrime violators to be extradited to other nations and will make searching for and seizing evidence from abroad easier for foreign governments. "If we don't have a way to catch these folks, we're making them heroes, because they hack and then get good tech jobs," says Harris Corp. chief security engineer Bill Wall.

Critics say the treaty's emphasis on law enforcement ignores fundamental privacy issues. "The governments are going to be doing more wiretapping and reading e-mails on behalf of foreign governments," says Jim Dempsey, deputy director of the Center for Democracy and Technology. He adds that the treaty will require companies to hold on to records for possible investigation, which could cost millions if not billions of dollars. "We need laws not to expand government snooping authority but to put reasonable limits on it to protect our privacy," Dempsey says. "The treaty's got it backwards."

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